The Bible is a collection of sacred texts in Judaism and Christianity.It is a collection of scriptures written at different times by differentauthors in different locations. Jews and Christians consider the booksof the Bible to be a product of divine inspiration or an authoritativerecord of the relationship between God and humans.

Jewish Bibles differ from Christian Bibles in that they do notcontain the New Testament. Contrary to popular belief, a JewishBible is not simply called a Torah (which is the first five booksof the Bible). In Judaism, the full Bible is called the Tanakh.These Bibles are not Christian Bibles minus the New Testament, asmost of them have been translated just a bit differently than otherChristian Bibles. Most of these Bibles are published bilinguallywith the Hebrew text facing the English text. The most popularversion of the Tanakh is the Jewish Publication of America Society'sversion (JPS), which was first published in 1917 and continues to bepublished to this day.

King James Version

The King James version of the Christian Bible is the most widely readand most highly regarded for conservative Christians. This particularBible was authorized by King James and took 47 translators four yearsto complete this task. This version was authorized by King James I ofEngland as the one and only correct translation of the Bible. Sinceits completion in 1611, it has become the most widely used Bible amongEnglish-speaking Christians.

New International Version

The New International Version (NIV) made its debut in 1973 and is constantlybeing revised (with a new revision due out in 2011). A team of 100 translatorsfrom all over the English speaking world came together to translate this Bibleand aimed to preserve theological points of Christianity that the RevisedStandard Version seemed to lack. When translating this Bible, the group oftranslators used the Tanakh and the Novum Testamentum Graece (the Greek versionof the New Testament).

Revised Version

The Revised Version is a Bible that was first published in 1881 (in its entiretyin 1894) that was meant to be a revision of the King James Bible, which at thetime, was the only Protestant Bible available to the general public. This versionwas meant to make the Bible more accessible to the average reader. In this Bible,the word LORD is substituted by the word Jehovah. This Bible was then adapted in1901 to the American Standard Version, which is still in use today. Although itwas the only competition to the King James Version at the time, it was regardedas going against Evangelical philosophy such as not proclaiming Mary as a virgin.

Roman Catholic Versions

Today, the New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, is the version that iswidely accepted among Catholics. This version of the Bible is essentially the samething as the newest edition as the Revised Standard Version, except the books arein the Catholic order (the inclusion of the books Tobit and Judith, as well as thebooks of Wisdom and Sirach). Previously, the Douay-Rheims version of the CatholicBible was the most widely used Bible among Catholics. This version was borrowedheavily from the King James Version. From 1750 to 1941, this was regarded as theofficial Catholic Bible. In 1941, major changes were made to the Bible and it wasthen identified as the Confraternity Bible.